Cisco Beats Earnings Like A Red Headed Stepchild, Up Over 4 Pct AH To 2001 Levels

Cisco ($CSCO) beat earnings after the bell – maybe not quite like a redheaded stepchild, but enough to send it up over 4% after hours to levels last seen in nearly 17 years.

That’s right, for all you loyal Cisco shareholders who bought in January, 2001 and haven’t sold a share, you’re finally back to breakeven!

The Numbers

Fiscal first quarter adjusted earnings came in a 61 cents / share, flat vs. a year earlier. Revenue fell 2% to $12.1 billion vs. $12.35 billion a year earlier. EPS came in a penny more than estimates and revenues were only expected to come in at $12.1 billion.

“Cisco is delivering more insights and intelligence as we help our customers build highly secure, intelligent platforms for digital business,” said Chief Executive Chuck Robbins.

For the current quarter, Cisco expects to earn a per-share profit between 46 cents and 51 cents, or 58 cents to 60 cents on an adjusted basis. The company expects revenue to rise between 1% and 3% from a year earlier. Those figures don’t account for the planned acquisition of BroadSoft, the company said.

Analysts had forecast Cisco earning a second-quarter profit of 47 cents a share, or 58 cents a share on an adjusted basis, and revenue rising by 1%.

Barrons reports:

As announced last quarter, Cisco started using different categorizations for its products this quarter, changing what had been things such as switching and routing to five broader product names: “infrastructure platforms,” “applications,” “security,” “services,” and “other.” To see how these new categories line up with the old ones, check out the PDF document posted on Cisco’s investor relations site that offers a mapping from the old to the new.

According to a spreadsheet posted on the site, using the new categories, “infrastructure” sales, including switching and routing, saw a 4% decline, to $6.97 billion. The applications group saw a 6% rise, to $1.2 billion. The company’s security products rose by 8%, to $585 million. The “other” category, which includes what had been referred to as “service provider video,” plunged by 16%. And the services business rose by 1% to $3.08 billion.

CEO Chuck Robbins said the report demonstrated “the continued progress we’re making on our strategy,” adding, “the network has never been more critical to business success.”

“Cisco is delivering more insights and intelligence as we help our customers build highly secure, intelligent platforms for digital business,” he added.